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The Forgotten
Metascore
43 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 34 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 34
  2. Mixed: 21 out of 34
  3. Negative: 8 out of 34
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  1. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: William Arnold
    91
    It struck me as the most exciting and original Hollywood thriller, occult or otherwise, since "The Sixth Sense."
  2. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    88
    Turns out to be a grade-A B-movie that grounds its thrills in particulars of time, place, and character, so that when the time comes to make the leap into the wholly preposterous, we do so willingly. This is a movie that earns our trust -- and then happily abuses it.
  3. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Chris Kaltenbach
    75
    This is a movie that earns its suspense and validates its emotions, especially its examination of the bond between mother and child.
  4. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Jon Strickland
    70
    Midway through, the plot pulls itself out of its doldrums with a sudden, heart-twisting turn. Ruben still knows how to cut a sequence for maximum jolt, and, ultimately, he and DiPego manage to summon up some of the B-movie paranoia that fueled "The Stepfather," turning in a pleasantly nonsensical roller-coaster ride.
  5. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Sid Smith
    63
    The stylish and imaginative imagery in director Joseph Ruben's film, not to mention the parapsychological twists and mysteries, evoke the work of director M. Night Shyamalan.
  6. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Stephanie Zacharek
    60
    Begins as a perfectly reasonable thriller and ends up rather an inane one.
  7. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: J.R. Jones
    60
    Outlandish but gripping paranoid thriller.
  8. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    58
    A thriller of carefully cultivated murk. It's enigmatic in the worst sense, in that every explanation for what's going on holds less water than the last.
  9. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Kirk Honeycutt
    50
    Sustains a few icy chills, but a mix of genres muddles the story.
  10. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    50
    The Forgotten is not a good movie, but at least it supplies a credible victim (Moore).
  11. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Peter Debruge
    50
    The ending of The Forgotten leaves you feeling the same way, wondering just how much -- if anything -- of what came before actually happened.
  12. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Carla Meyer
    50
    The picture never comes out from under the weight of its dreariness, despite fine acting, foot chases and conspiracy theories galore.
  13. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    50
    This could easily go down as the year's best example of solid acting in a wretched motion picture.
  14. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Rick Groen
    50
    There is nothing worse than a thriller that doesn't play fair... The Forgotten is just a big, fat, obvious cheater.
  15. Charlotte Observer
    Reviewed by: Lawrence Toppman
    50
    By the self-contradictory and ludicrous end, I had the mixed satisfaction of being proved right in my disappointment. (Di Pego wrote the equally silly "Instinct" and "Angel Eyes," so I can't say I was surprised.)
  16. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Maitland McDonagh
    50
    Director Joseph Ruben's best efforts can't keep Gerald Di Pego's puzzle-picture script from toppling into absurdity as it lurches from melodrama to psychological thriller with supernatural overtones to full-blown exercise in X-Files-style nuttiness.
  17. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Marc Mohan
    50
    The movie works reasonably well at this for its first half, but by then we've pretty much figured everything out.
  18. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Robert Wilonsky
    50
    Ultimately only Moore, with her eyes always half-damp and voice half-cracked and body language half-mad, keeps the movie on the ground, when it too often threatens to fly into the thin air, where the audience would laugh it off the screen.
  19. Variety
    Reviewed by: Brian Lowry
    50
    A spare, streamlined thriller for the conspiracy-minded, Area 51 crowd, The Forgotten perhaps wisely leaves more questions than it answers and for the most part manages to maintain its suspense.
  20. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    50
    It's really weird. Has its share of visceral surprises. Slightly predictable and dumb when all is said and done.
  21. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Ann Hornaday
    50
    An uneasy mix between "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" and the "The X-Files," and one not nearly as smart as either.
  22. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Pete Vonder Haar
    40
    There isn't much here any semi-regular viewer of "The X-Files" hasn't already seen a dozen times before.
  23. Empire
    Reviewed by: Will Lawrence
    40
    A premise neutered by daft supernatural shenanigans, which raise as many questions as they answer.
  24. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Mark Holcomb
    40
    The resolution is as surprise-free as it is improbably sunny.
  25. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Carina Chocano
    40
    Such unabashed ludicrousness can be fun, in a brainless sort of way, especially when it's coupled with lots of sudden defibrillator jolts underscored by crashing cymbals. If there's one thing The Forgotten has, it's plenty of cardiac moments.
  26. Newsweek
    Reviewed by: David Ansen
    40
    It's poppycock, but well directed: Ruben delivers two or three guaranteed jolts, which almost make up for the copout of an ending.
  27. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jack Mathews
    38
    The last act, when the movie falls apart like a cheap toy, is both a deus ex machina and an anticlimax.
  28. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Megan Lehmann
    38
    The worst crime perpetrated in the Swiss-cheese screenplay by Gerald Di Pego ("Angel Eyes") is the cynical use of a mother's love for her child as a plot device for an intelligence-insulting sci-fi dud.
  29. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Mike Clark
    38
    All this dreary movie has is a terrible whodunit payoff.
  30. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marjorie Baumgarten
    30
    My favorite line from the movie: "The god---- truth won't fit in your brain." How's that for cheap gimmicks for getting out of having to make a movie make sense?
  31. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Keith Phipps
    30
    Though it soon devolves into a laughable mess, The Forgotten at least spends its first 10 minutes or so raising provocative questions.
  32. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Manohla Dargis
    30
    In the preposterous thriller The Forgotten, a pseudospiritual, mumbo-jumbo, science-fiction inflected mess, the director Joseph Ruben does not just fail to tap into Ms. Moore's talent; he barely gets her attention.
  33. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Carrie Rickey
    25
    Tedious and incoherent thriller.
  34. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Joe Morgenstern
    10
    It's "The Sixth Sense" as nonsense, "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" without the sunshine. Or the mind.
    All this critic's reviews
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User Reviews

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User Score
5.5 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 114 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 23 out of 64
  2. Mixed: 10 out of 64
  3. Negative: 31 out of 64
  1. Lopez17
    5
    What if someone told you that your child never existed that it was all just apart of your imagination that you dreamed up a happy life, with a happy little boy/girl. Then one day you wake up and that child is suddenly forgotten pictures, videos, friends everyone who knew your child suddenly has forgotten that he/she ever existed. Joseph Ruben's "The Forgotten" explores themes relating to the above statement, Ruben's film tells the story of a grieving mother named Telly Paretta (Julianne Moore) who fourteen months ago lost her nine-year-old son Sam in a plane crash and every day she goes to her and looks at his precious baseball cap and catcher’s mitt. One day she wakes up and finds that a photo of her, Sam and her husband Jim (Anthony Edwards) been replaced with a photo of just her and Jim, and then home movies of Sam are suddenly blank. Soon her Husband, Her psychiatrist (Gary Sinise), her neighbors soon have no recollection of there ever being a Sam Paretta. Telly soon sets out to find if her son really existed or if it all was just an illusion. Joseph Ruben's "The Forgotten” is a well thought out but poorly executed Sci-Fi mystery with a premise that at times is so ludicrous you can barely take this film seriously. it at times feels like a poorly constructed Twilight Zone episode all it is missing is Rod Sterling creepy prologue monologue and a black and white opening with the Twilight zone theme. I felt lost at times and at others I felt like this film was trying to be the new "Matrix", so to speak, it had that type of feel to it like it was ripping off two great sci-Fi titans and that just pulled me even further from the story the film was trying to tell. Don't get me wrong I liked the ideas the film has and I also like the premise of the film but it felt distant, emotionless and bland I felt nothing for the characters and the fact they lost there children; it was like the film was trying, on purpose. To make you distance yourself from the characters and from the situation at hand. That is where this film fails. It strings you along for a 1hr. 31mis until this big twist ending that is not so much of a stretch to figure out “The Forgotten" is a SyFy channel T.V. movie with little to nothing to offer. There times in this movie that you will feel for the characters and then there are times that you just want the characters to be forgotten, this film to be forgotten and in all ways this film is a very forgettable ride that offers nothing more beyond the standard thrills and no chills. Even though it has a very believable victim (Julianne Moore), Moore cannot save the film from the hell that is underwhelming Science Fiction. However, the credit must be given where it is due, she does try her hardest but she fails to deliver when her true talent is needed. “The Forgotten” works to entertain but only for a little while. Julianne Moore is a fantastic actress she has done some fine films that are instantly recognizable; "Boogie Nights"(1997), "The Hours""(2002),” Far from Heaven"(2002). However, here I feel like she took this film solely for the gig as if she did not have any other better films to do. I liked her in this but I felt like she was not trying, as if she was being held back by something. In any case, Moore fails to impress or even convince us of her grief for her lost son it is just her for 1 hr. 31min of her running around yelling at people and screaming, "Where is my son?” "Do you know my son?”Do you remember my son?" it becomes too repetitive and annoying for any audience member to take seriously. Moore has done better, much better and while there are some times she is good in this film those moments are not frequent enough for a persuasive performance. Moore falls flat on her face. The rest of the cast including Christopher Kovaleski, Jessica Hecht, Dominic West, Gary Sinise and Linus Roache they all deliver poor performances (Roache being the exception) in a film that blows your mind with its blandness and poor execution. "The Forgotten" has the perfect title to describe this films dull and contrived story as soon as it's over and you move on to something else you complete forget that you ever saw this film and when you see a glimpse of it and remember your thankful that you forgot in the first place. It's not good entertainment, hell it's not entertainment at all it's just people running from other people and a twist ending you figure out in the first twenty minutes of the film, "The Forgotten" is ultimately forgettable.… Full Review »
  2. Alexander_Fred
    3
    The Forgotten starts off splendidly leaving questions unanswered so that suspense builds. Then, we discover the source of the missing children and the entire story crumbles. This film had the capacity to be a great mystery and psychological thriller with great themes of love, morality, and family, but ultimately, it becomes inane, far fetched, and a laughable farce.… Full Review »
  3. chelano
    5
    Ok I will say off the bat that the whole concept to the movie is a little strange. You start to figure most of it out by the middle of the film. By the end, it comes clear and is a little off. The cast on the other hand were pretty good. Julianne Moore was pretty excellent as well as Dominic West who also had a big part. Side characters were also good like Gary Sinise and my personal favorite from the movie, Linus Roache. He basically played the bad guy and really had no emotion until later in the film. But having no emotion made him a very creepy character to watch. I really wished more out of this movie. I guess the story was just ok for me, but I did enjoy watching it. I keep feeling like they could of took a different direction and did better though.… Full Review »
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